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Adam McDowell wants you to drink as your grandparents did. Embrace cocktails, talk about bitters and get fluent with the finer points of tequila.

Lap up the institutional drinking knowledge that’s been lost over the past decades when North Americans regarded drinking as unhealthy, sacrilegious and sad, says the Toronto-based drinks writer and booze expert with CTV’s The Social, whose new book, Drinks: A User’s Guide comes out Sept. 20.

“Some time between the Mad Men era (1960s) and the ’80s, it was decided that alcohol was unhealthy,” said McDowell, noting that while it was long known alcoholism was unhealthy, even casual boozers started adopting less alcoholic options, such as wine spritzers in the 1980s, when alcoholic consumption per capita started falling.

“Adding to (that were) puritanical ideas that were already on the ground in North America — Protestant ideas about altered states of consciousness being sinful or shameful. You put that all together and it became this idea that someone who drank booze was ... Norm on Cheers. It was this sad, pathetic person.”

Along with the stigma came a loss of knowledge about how to make cocktails, what to drink when and even access to key cocktail ingredients, such as orange bitters, a key ingredient in many cocktails, which McDowell wasn’t able to find in Canada until the mid-2000s.

Adam McDowell, author of the new book Drinks: A User's Guide, says the last several decades have seen a loss of knowledge about how to make cocktails, what to drink when and even access to key cocktail ingredients. (Rene Johnston / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Adam McDowell says that in 2011, there were just a handful of cocktail bars in the city, whereas now there are dozens. (Rene Johnston / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

“If you came to a hotel bar 10 years ago, five years ago, they wouldn’t have said, ‘What kind of gin do you want in your tonic?’ ” McDowell said during a sit-down interview at the Royal York Hotel’s Library Bar where he ordered a Perfect Martinez — a mix of Angostura bitters, Botanist Islay Dry Gin, Cointreau, sweet red vermouth, dry vermouth with a lemon twist. I ordered a gin and tonic made with Botanist gin. “You would have got maybe Gordon’s and that’s it, which is fine, but now we have choice.”

McDowell, who is in his 30s, points south of the border to explain North American society’s recent interest in “drinking interesting things,” including out of the ordinary wines and beers, but mainly, cocktails.

“Part of that has been fuelled by the cocktail resurgence in the United States, starting in New York and New Orleans, which started a decade ago,” he said. That has spread in a really healthy way to Canada.”

He points to the dozens of cocktail bars established across the city, whereas in 2011, there were just a handful.

But North American knowledge of booze is still far from the 1960s love affair with cocktails when “gutsy, strong, classic cocktails were a big thing,” he said. The first step is getting past misconceptions and stigma.

“I do think people are a little embarrassed to talk about alcohol. When you walk into the office with a bag of wine in an English-speaking country, people go, ‘Tee hee, who’s having a party?’” McDowell said. “There’s a sort of immature giggle that happens when some people get near booze, as if they’re in proximity to something naughty ... you don’t have to behave as if someone’s doing something wrong or risqué by having a drink.

Through Drinks: A User’s Guide, he hopes to educate those who imbibe, by sharing trade secrets (stick to drinking spirits at weddings — he finds the wine is almost always bad), fun facts about alcohol’s history, such as gin’s origins as medicine, basic dos and don’ts of drinking, and cocktail recipes including his favourite mojito. He considers his book “a primer for drinking well, every day” and hopes readers get comfortable talking about, experimenting with and indulging in alcohol.

Four questions for Adam McDowell:

What’s your go-to drink?

I don’t have one. I’m actually pretty against the idea of a go-to drink. People have a go-to drink and then they go to the same things over and over again. There are certainly reliable drinks: gin and tonic is one of them, Manhattan is a good cocktail, hard to go wrong with pale ale.

What are some examples of drinks that are right for the situation?

Last night, I went to Bar Hop on King St. W. I was waiting for my fiancée to show up and we were going to a ball game. Normally, a ball game beer would be something lighter but it was pouring rain out so I got stout. Dark beer for a dark, gloomy evening. If you can’t figure out what to drink — sparkling wine.

What do people say when they find out you’re a booze expert?

People start apologizing for what they’re drinking. They say, “Oh, I don’t know anything about wine or beer. I’m not sophisticated.” It’s strange because I don’t think anyone does that with food. I don’t say, “Oh, I wouldn’t dare order fish as a restaurant, I don’t know anything about fish.” I don’t know why drinks have this (mystery) around it.

Favourite Toronto bars?

The Bar at Alo. Bar Raval. Cocktail Bar. The Harbord Room.

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